Overview of Wireless Network
Steven Fetcie
Infrastructure Manager
Information Services
SUNY Canton is one of eight Technology
Colleges in the 64 campus State University
of New York system
History
First began to experiment with wireless
LANs in the summer of 1999. A small
pilot test was conducted during the spring of 2000
with Electrical Engineering Technology students
First production units installed in
support of student laptop program
during the summer of 2001 utilizing
Cabletron (now Enterasys) Roamabout
AP 2000 802.11b Access Points
Initial areas covered included
 Electrical Engineering Technology Labs
and Offices
 Library
 JT’s Café (Faculty Office Building
Lobby)
No encryption
MAC Authentication using back end
RADIUS server ( Livingston RADIUS
running on Linux)
Students registered their MAC addresses by
filling out a registration form
Next major expansion came during the summer of 2002
when a decision was made to install wireless coverage in
all Residence Halls.
Prior to this project, access in Residence Halls was limited
to 22 dial up lines via Intel Shiva remote access servers.
As more students began to bring PCs to college, demand
for dial up access grew from less than 50 users to over 300
out of approximately 800 residents
Separate WAN connection set up to support
Residence Halls (1 T1 initially, later 3 T1s)
Same MAC registration process
Lessons learned from Res Hall rollout
Manual Registration did not scale well
needed to investigate automated process
Tremendous ramp up in Help Desk calls related to
installing wireless cards.
Initial computer registration was approximately 300
devices (Fall 2002)
Over the years of wireless access, grew to approx 600
Added an automated registration process
during the summer of 2005 (Netreg) to
support all wireless users on campus
Wireless access was discontinued May
2006 after Time Warner Roadrunner
Installation project during winter break 05/06
Expansion on other areas of Campus
Wireless was added as part of construction
projects 2002-2005
New Construction
Miller Campus Center
Newell Veterinary Science Building
Renovation project
Wicks Hall
Old Campus Center
Today’s coverage
40 APs installed, 16 awaiting installation
Library – full coverage
Wicks Hall – full coverage
Cheney Dining Hall – full coverage
All large lecture halls
Nevaldine Eng Tech Center
North – full coverage
South – partial coverage
Newell Vet Science Building – full coverage
Cook Hall – partial coverage
Payson Hall – partial coverage
Dana Hall ( Athletics) – partial coverage
Miller Campus Center ( full coverage including Kingston Theater)
Residence Halls – center area ( offices, game room, lounge)
Equipment Overview
Roamabout AP 2000
Roamabout R2
Proprietary remote power injector
No 802.3af Power over Ethernet support
All end of life / End of service
Management
Roamabout Manager
Fall 2006 implemented Bradford Networks
Campus Manager
Enterasys Roamabout Manager
Client list of Access Point
Link Test with Client Device
All users of the campus wireless network
must register their PCs and allow a
security policy check.
What is checked?
 Are you a valid user
What operating system do you have
(Windows 98 and ME are not allowed)
What level of OS Service Pack is installed
Do you have an Anti-Virus program
installed and is it current
Automatic Updates enabled
Network login page
Enter in the username and password of your
Campus network account and type of system
You will see the application in action as it checks your system
PC has passed policy check
Questions?